[quote=“loncray, post:14, topic:2965”]
My suspicion is that any time your blast panels come into use, you have problems way beyond what happens to your gear on top of them.
[/quote] True. But the question was about the gear on top interfering with the blast panels doing their thing correctly and the blast of ammo cooking of going in the turret and killing the crew. THAT is a big problem.
[quote=“Gary_Totty, post:18, topic:2965”]
“it would be the power pack to let go first along with the suspension. Knowing what the overbuild factor that TACOM calls out (note: not every spec can be met), I’d say the hull is good for a realistic eighty tons. The gear box alone will handle 7,000+ ft.lb. of torque” … blah…blah … blah … And this has WHAT to do with the subject of blow out panels?
very simple. The post was about overloading the tank in the first place. Blast don’t mean nothing when it comes to weight. To be exact, blast panels add not, nor take away tonnage.
glt
The question is the blast panels working with tonnage on top. I think it won’t matter as it would not be secured to the same level and the blast doors are in the turret. The rounds cooking off would blow the panels off and anything that was resting on top.
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Yes, the blast panels will still exit the vehicle if stuff is loaded on top of them. The exploding ammo will blow them and anything on top of them off.
The gear stacked on top will never weigh enough to overload the tank to the point that it would wear out the suspension. That is total crap, just like most of Gary’s irrelevant, off topic posts.
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Having not been a tanker myself, I defer to the experts: the men who actually crewed them in combat. If there was any chance that having stowage on top of the blast panels was going to endanger their lives, they would’ve done something else. I’m not claiming that every soldier ever was always doing the safe thing, but we’ve all seen plenty of tanks in Iraq with gear piled all over the tops of the turrets, and we know by now whether it was safe or not.
“What is the reg(s) on stowage on the turret blow out hatches” … Someone need to get back to their ESL classes.
Thank you, Gino. My thought was the blast panels are designed to vent in X # of milli-seconds . Would the added weight slow that time down and result in the pressure venting into the turret through the ammo handling door.
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Looking at an old video reminded me that is the cross wind sensor, so having things in from is ok but you will notice the sides are free to measure the cross wind.
Looking at photos and videos of the design of the ammo door, it does not look like it is not possible by design for a blast in the ammo compartment to vent into the main turret compartment. The door is larger than the surrounding framework, so it can’t be blown into the crew compartment unless there is catastrophic failure of the framework.
The physics of the force of the explosion in the ammo compartment will take the path of least resistance - the venting panels. One round fired thru the main gun rocks a 60+ ton tank, even with a recoil absorbing mechanism. Multiply that energy by several times, and it will easily displace a few hundred pounds of gear on top of the panels overhead.
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I don’t recall there ever being a Regulation about stowing items on top of the blow off panels. The brass didn’t like it, but they didn’t prohibit it. Some units may have had an SOP banning it, otherwise we just tried to avoid putting stuff directly on top of the panels - we place items in back, on the sides, and in front around the hatches. Unfortunately, we had to carry a lot of stuff. some of it ended up on top of the panels.
As mentioned above, each crewmember had two duffle bags and a rucksack, plus cots, comfort gear, food, etc. The basic idea, which came from Germany and the Cold War, was that you were expected to survive on your own, except for maybe fuel and ammo, for at least three days unsupported. So you carried enough clothing, food, water, and gear to last at least three days.
Ken.
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I’ve been on a Leo II and I’d say there is less room than a M1.
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The load plan from the manual that was posted does have a note on that
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There is that, which I never got while I was active duty, but I don’t recall any official prohibition. But even the illustration here shows the camouflage net slightly overlapping the blow out panels at the back.
Ken.
The loaders hatch goes over the panels and I’ve always wondered how far that thing would fly when the panels go boom?
I would think because it’s hinged it won’t fly away but would slam shut fast and crushing anything in-between be it loader or gun etc. Let’s be honest your not having a good day if the panels blow anyway.
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Another thing I’ve always wondered about is what would be the effects of the loader and tc when they are up and those panels go off?
They are gone for sure
I agree, if your driving open and hit by a “sniper” in the ammo bin, those guys are toast.
It’s kinda assumed that if the tank is taking a hit in the turret, that it is combat and the crew are inside buttoned up. Otherwise, it will not go well for them. I have seen photos from Iraq where the turret ammo has gone up, that look very bad for the crew. There was no information on the crews, but some of those photos just don’t look survivable.
Ken.
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